3 Slaps
by Initial A
Summary: The three times Pepper has slapped Tony. Two times were, admittedly, deserved. The other... the jury's still out. Taken from a line in my fic "Anthony and Virginia". Movieverse.
1. Chapter 1

**3 Slaps**

**By: InitialA**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing from the Marvel universe.**

* * *

The first time Pepper slapped him was after his disastrous birthday party.

Technically speaking, it was about a week after the party. After Vanko's last attempt at revenge. Tony was feeling relatively comfortable about Pepper's rage towards him over the last few days calming down. And in said comfort, he made a comment that he probably shouldn't have. "Well. Gosh, after all that, I could sure use a dirty martini. You? Can I get you anything? I promise not to leave you on the roof this time."

"Tony, I think you've had more than enough to drink for a while," Pepper said, her light tone laced with a hint of iron.

"You sure? I'm not sure. Though maybe not something with vodka, I'm not really fond of the Russians at this point, between Vanko and Agent Romanoff. She threatened me, did you know that? I think she could really—"

*SLAP*

For maybe the fourth time in his life, Tony was stunned speechless. He blinked a few times, trying to get his bearings, and worked his jaw around to stop the stinging. He saw the way Pepper was shaking, ever-so-slightly; the nervous way she tucked some of her hair behind her ear, her left foot turned a bit inwards and scuffing at the gravel and tar on the rooftop. She was furious, but scared at the same time. "Pep."

"Just… no more. Please. I can't… I've been your babysitter for over ten years. I've put up with you at your worst, but last week? No more. I can't do that again. I was humiliated, Tony. In front of everyone you know, a handful of people I know, and dozens of others that I'm sure neither you nor I, or even Rhody, know. Those stupid… I know, you were drunk, and showing off because those… those girls were egging you on. I know. I get it. I just… need more than a week to be able to handle you drinking for a while."

If he was honest with himself—even he wasn't sure how often that was—he could hardly remember the party. Most of it was a blur. The fight with Rhody, that was a bit more clear. But before that… "There was the… the target practice thing, right? God, I barely remember that, how did I even aim… And showcasing the urinary filtration system. And…"

"Between that, Tony."

There was the rage again. He hit himself in the back of the head to try and jog his memory… Ah. Calling her boring in front of everyone, making fun of the way she was trying to protect him; essentially telling everyone in the room to ignore her because she, the woman who had just been made CEO of Stark Industries and faithful assistant-slash-Tony-handler for ten years (when most others would have run out within the week), wanted to 'ruin his fun'.

Mocking her for trying to shield him from making any more bad mistakes that night.

And boy, did he make a lot more of those.

"Okay. I deserve that. And more, I want to deserve that. So, no more drinking. You got it. Pepper's rules. You're the boss, I have to follow your direction."

"Don't get sarcastic with me right now, Tony Stark—"

"I'm not being sarcastic. I'm one hundred percent sincere. I was an unbelievable ass—dare I say, douchebag." The look on her face agreed, and wished he'd said worse. "So, I'll stop drinking."

"Cold turkey. Just like that," Pepper raised an eyebrow.

"I can't guarantee I won't slip. One or two, on occasion. And some celebratory champagne, because you and I will have a lot of things to celebrate in the future," Tony gently held her arms. "But if you let me know when you get uncomfortable, I'll stop."

Pepper bit her lip, and then nodded. "Okay."

"Okay."

* * *

**((Someone requested a story behind the three slaps Pepper had given Tony, from my story "Anthony and Virginia". Two he deserved, one he wasn't sure he deserved. This one, I wanted to focus on what I felt was unresolved tension from Tony's birthday party in _Iron Man 2_. I've been Pepper, on more than one occasion, the one trying to handle an alcoholic on a destructive rampage who does NOT want to be handled. I wanted to see where the characters would take me if I tried to subtly bring up Tony's problems with alcohol. Judging by his much more controlled intake of it (two glasses, neither finished more than a sip) in _The Avengers_, I'm hoping this is something Tony is working on and we'll see less of it in _Iron Man 3_. Two more slaps to go!))**


	2. Chapter 2

**3 Slaps**

**By: InitialA**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing in the Marvel universe.**

* * *

The second time Pepper slapped him, Tony did her one better.

He could only be glad it hadn't happened the first time they'd had sex. That night, while not as perfect as he would have preferred, shone in his memory as a real turning point in his life.

It had taken a few months to get to that stage in their relationship. A pace he, a womanizer with a trail of broken hearts haunting him, should have resented, but didn't. Taking it slow with Pepper seemed right. It was actually fun. He enjoyed teasing her. The way she squirmed when she was fighting to keep her resolve to not bed him too quickly, the high-pitched squeak her voice became when he snuck up behind her in the middle of a sentence. It was intoxicating. He'd have given up drinking years ago if all it took to satiate him was the sight of a very flustered Pepper trying to work while he ran his hand up her thigh.

And that first night wasn't even his idea. He had been down in his workshop, tinkering with the engine of the hotrod, minding his own business for once. _She_ was the one who had pulled _him_ out from under the car, wearing nothing but a sheer kimono and a smile that promised him all the wonderful things under the stars and more.

There was the snafu of all the grease, but Pepper's original idea was in no way harmed by the suggestion of a shower first—preferably together.

Better still, the water made their bodies slick, and made the bedroom more fun. It hadn't made the bed less uncomfortable to sleep in after that fun, but they made up for that the next time. And the time after that.

But the time _after_ the time after that… Well.

In his own defense—which he, by now, knew better than to voice aloud—he had been smashed on the head during one of his S.H.I.E.L.D. consultations not twelve hours before The Incident. It was likely a mild concussion, something he could brush off without any serious concern, completely harmless.

Or so he thought.

Apparently, mixing a concussion with your girlfriend straddling you into a hazy, pleasurable oblivion can cause a brief hallucination of that redheaded girl from that one time a few years ago at that one thing in Nice.

Said hallucination can sometimes be so strong that you say her name instead of your girlfriend's name.

Victoria.

Virginia "Pepper" Potts is no Victoria.

Virginia "Pepper" Potts has a really mean backhand when she's got you handcuffed to your headboard and is pinning you down at the waist.

As she stormed out, Tony tried calling after her, apologizing, but she wouldn't have any of it. If he was right, and he usually was, she was probably listing off all the previous affairs he'd had with women and trying to tally a ballpark number to see what number she was. She was probably running through his usual list of charming tricks to see what signs she had missed. And he was helpless to stop her.

She hadn't uncuffed him from the headboard.

Rhody found him the next day, at the behest of Jarvis. After laughing for a good ten minutes, he was able to find the key and free his friend. Rhody assured him that while he wouldn't tell a soul, it was useful to have an enormous bit of blackmail, just in case. Tony fired him. Rhody reminded him that he didn't work for Tony. Tony cussed him out, and finally found his pants.

Pepper wasn't at her apartment. She wasn't at the office, and she wasn't answering any of her phones. He didn't dare call her family's home, or drive out there. She'd told him a little about her father, and he had no doubts at all that he would be the perfect father figure in this situation: threatening the man who'd broken his little girl's heart, shotgun in hand, and Tony wouldn't blame him at all. He might even let him take a few shots.

The sun was going down by the time he arrived back at his mansion. He buried himself in his workshop. He muted Jarvis after the second day. The continuing reminders that he needed to eat or sleep were distracting and unwanted.

Burning. Tony snapped himself out of a stupor as the soldering iron burned his finger again. Or another finger. He'd lost track at this point. Days. Injuries. Lost meals. All of it.

Because none of it mattered. Not when he'd screwed up this badly.

It sounded like the workshop door was opening, but that was probably a hallucination. All the others were. This Pepper, talking to him in a worried voice, she wasn't real either. None of it was real. She was gone, left him, all because…

Tony woke with a start. He was in his bed. How had he gotten here? The last thing he remembered was… He looked at his hands. All of his fingers were bandaged, smelling strongly of burn ointment and aloe. That was strange. When had that happened?

The door opened. Later, he would swear up and down that even the arc reactor glowed brighter and hummed louder when she walked into the room. She had a bowl of some kind of broth. She said Jarvis had told her everything. He asked her if she was going to throw the broth in his face. She said she hadn't ruled that out, _yet_, but was willing to listen first.

He talked for a very long time. He watched her face, but she had apparently been taking lessons from Agent Romanoff because he couldn't get a read off of her. In the back of his mind, he realized that she wouldn't have dragged him out of the workroom, bandaged him, and made him soup if she hadn't forgiven him just a little. Or even just felt sorry for him. Maybe he _would_ upgrade Jarvis' servers and output chips, like it had been requesting. If she actually forgave him, that is.

At some point during his monologue, she handed him the bowl. He paused to take a drink, and he noted that he'd cleared another hurdle: consuming the broth and not wearing it.

After he'd finally, finally finished talking, she was quite for a bit. Then, she laid out two rules:

No sex after fights, no matter how much adrenaline was rushing through his system.

No sex at all until she felt better about him.

He was slightly daunted, especially after experiencing how incredible she was in bed, but agreed immediately.

Then, he suggested his own addendum: whatever she wanted Stark Industries to focus on next, they would go in on it 100%. No questions asked, the board would be overruled on all counts, no hurdles at all. Everything the Pepper Potts way.

It was her turn to look daunted, but she recovered quickly. She didn't even hesitate.

Green energy, via arc reactor, readily available for everyone.

Tony thought about it. They were going to need a really impressive prototype if this was going to sell. He grinned.

* * *

**((Wow, be glad I deleted an entire section devoted to Pepper ruining sexy times by having a brief panic over whether or not the arc reactor could get wet for an extended period of time… and all the internet research in the world can't answer that question for me. XD Comic book characters don't need to bathe? I liked the idea of this being completely dialogue-less; I love writing their banter, and Tony's a real pisser when it comes to rattling off the first thing that comes to mind without thinking about it, but sometimes it's nice to have him shut up for a while, no? And a fun idea of how Stark Tower came about in _The Avengers_. X3 One slap left!))**


	3. Chapter 3

**3 Slaps**

**By: InitialA**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing in the Marvel universe.**

**Author's Note/A Ton of Pre-Chapter Acknowledgements: Thank you so much, everyone, for all the kind feedback. This was very fun to write! The final slap was inspired by a comment from Treegona. I was panicking about this one, but I rather liked the idea they proposed. So thank you! And thank you Deadpool-rules for asking me to write this in the first place!**

* * *

He really didn't deserve it, the third time Pepper slapped him.

To this day, he has brought up no less than thirty-six separate arguments about why he didn't deserve it. She has consented to seventeen of the arguments.

There was a lot of press at the gala; they were celebrating the announcement of the new Stark Tower, the prototype for Pepper's desire to move the company in a greener direction. She looked stunning, as usual, in an emerald-green sheath dress with the back cut down to _there_. He liked _there_. _There_ was a very nice place to visit. It was very difficult for him to keep his hands off of her. "_Tony_!" She hissed as his hand strayed lower than appropriate; she was smiling though.

"You worry too much," he replied, tossing a few olives in his mouth.

"We're not public yet, and there's too much press. We'd create pandemonium."

"I always create pandemonium, it's totally fine. You get used to it. It's fun, really."

"I'd prefer it if the pandemonium was about how brilliant it is that Stark Industries can move from weapons manufacturing to sustainable green energy sources in under three years," Pepper said, her eyes twinkling at him from over her glass of wine. "And I'm already used to your particular brand of pandemonium. I've been cleaning up after it for over a decade."

"I don't like that word anymore. Pandemonium. Too many syllables," Tony juggled two olives single-handedly, catching one in his mouth on it's return.

Pepper laughed. "And thermonuclear physics doesn't? Isn't that the book you've got on the bedstand?"

"Sounds like a weird element made out of pandas, and they're endangered. That's bad for the pandas. We're all about the environment tonight, let's not involve killing pandas."

Pepper threw her head back as she laughed. He followed the line of her neck with his eyes, enjoying the way the soft light made her skin glow. After a minute, a toady-ing someone-or-other pulled her away from him to answer some questions about the designs for the Tower. Feeling slightly grumpy, Tony ordered a single malt whisky, with water, and sipped at it. He had been doing well, cutting down on drinking. Most weeks saw only three nights when he had anything, and even then he rarely finished it. Working on the designs for Stark Tower, and it's eventual copies and upgrades, helped curb that addiction-replacing one obsession with another.

Tonight was about Pepper and her baby, the green energy initiative. He would respect that, and control himself accordingly. Even if it meant feeling a bit sulky because she couldn't dance with him or let him ravish her like she deserved.

Movement registered to his left. He managed to tear his eyes away from Pepper, and found a young woman-eager, fresh-caught from school, half of her jewelry looking like it belonged at the sorority founding anniversary dance-giving him the eye. "Mr. Tony Stark, it's a pleasure to meet you."

"Same. Mindy? Cindy? Julie?"

"Sarah."

"Yeah, figured it was something bland like that. What can I do you for? Interview for the school paper? Headline: Stark is Ridiculously Pleased With Himself, Conquers New Energy Field. Quote: 'I'm looking forward to seeing how the competition tries to keep up this time, should be a laugh.' If that's all then..." He could tell she wanted more than just to talk, but he wasn't interested. The Tony of last year would have played with her, set her up, ensared her, and then left her for Pepper to clean up in the morning. That Tony and the current Tony were entirely separate people.

"Well, thank you, Mr. Stark, but I-"

His gaze had drifted back to Pepper, who was looking more than a little bit unsettled at the seven or so executives and reporters talking to her all at once. He left the young woman stammering at the bar, and swept into the circle surrounding his lover. "Gentlemen, I trust you aren't trying to tempt Stark's greatest assets away from me," he said, putting his arm around Pepper's shoulders-a safe, friendly zone.

"Tony, you can't hog her all to yourself, a mind like that? You should have promoted her years ago!" One of his compeditors said with a laugh that didn't quite reach his eyes.

"Yes, I can, do, and will keep her all to myself, and she tells me that every day," Tony replied, grinning at her.

"And afterwards, I tell you to fire me and replace me with someone who actually wants to do all that paperwork," Pepper said, giving him a look for his first remark.

The executives laughed, and the reporters merely looked bemused. The obvious protective nature of him around her caused them to wander off after a few more questions, and with relief, Pepper took a large swallow of her wine. "_That_ was intimidating..."

"I thought you handled it just fine," Tony said, his hand sliding down her arm to rest across her back.

"Tony..."

"Relax, you were fantastic, as usual, and this is just me complimenting you," he said, and brushed her hair back behind her ear, kissing her cheek. "Now, celebratory dance? Or do I have to wait for that until we're at home?"

"I really don't think we can dance to Black Sabbath or AC/DC," Pepper replied, with a hint of a grin.

"Sure you can. You just have to get creative. Or, dance horizontally. Or even vertically. Sometimes a little bit of both," he said, and she smacked his arm, her cheeks flushed pink as she smiled.

The next morning-after quite a bit of dancing, both normal (Hummel) and horizontal (AC/DC), upon their arrival at the Malibu house-Tony was in his workshop fiddling with a new design that would stabilize the marketable arc reactor to code when Pepper coded herself in; while annoyed that the Mogwai was turned off (post-rock was a surprising and pleasing middle-ground between his tastes and Pepper's for music), he was pleased to see his girlfriend.

Until she slapped him up the back of the head.

"What the hell was that for?" It was entirely too early for domestics, even by his usual hours.

"_This_!"

Pepper held up the L.A. Times. The front page was plastered with a photo of Tony kissing Pepper's cheek, and Pepper looking at him in what could only be described as an adoring way. The headline was blunt: "RENOUNED PLAYBOY SETTLES FOR FORMER ASSISTANT?" Tony grabbed the paper, and unfolded it. The entire bottom half of the paper was about the Stark Tower and what it would mean for the energy industry. "Well. See, then, at least we dominated the whole front page, it's not all that bad."

"Tony, look at it though. Settling? Is that how you want to see us? It's bad enough that there's the whole you promoting me a fortnight before we start seeing each other thing, that angle will be awful if they find out the truth on that. They're hinting to it already. But they put the real story below the fold!" Pepper sat down on a toolbox, cradling her head in her hands.

"I'm hearing two things. One, you're upset that we're now outed to the press, and the world, as potential lovers. Two, they consider this human interest piece more interesting than the green energy plan. There's a third thing, and that's that both of these are my fault enough that you decide the best course of action is giving me a minor concussion-which we all know, from past experience, is a terrible idea."

"All of these things are correct, Tony, what are we going to _do_?"

He crossed his arms. Really, he was too irritated by being hit to think that any of this was worth bothering with. So what, if they were outed to the press? And the Stark Tower story was still front page. And hell, this was the L.A. Times. Of course they were going to put the local-eccentric-billionaire-does-something-else-unexpected story front and center. The New York Times probably didn't have it. "Pepper, what other papers have you looked at today? News stations?"

She sighed. "Just the one..."

"Exactly. There's no need to start freaking out about this until we start getting calls from PR about it. It's all smoke and mirrors until they release something official anyway."

She looked weary. "Tony, I'm used to cleaning up after you, I'm not used to being _part_ of it."

"And as much as you think I never paid attention to the good job you did, I did. So I know how to handle this. We wait, act like nothing is different, and then we make our move. _After_ they've finished hashing out every bit of the Stark Tower project."

Pepper rubbed her temples. "You're right... You're right, I know you're right, I just... I needed the perspective. It's different on the inside..."

As annoyed with her as he was, Tony flashed her his million-dollar smile. "The good news is, this is the only time you'll have to do it. And sooner or later they'll get bored of us."

She froze for a moment, wide-eyed. He was impressed that her commitment-phobia was about as strong as his. "I... well. Yes."

"Unless that's not what you want?"

She lowered her hands, and clasped them slowly. "That's not what I'm saying, that's... Wow. From you that's very... wow."

He picked up an old rag and ran it along a wrench, giving his hands something to do. "I'm not asking you to marry me," he said, and noted her slight color change, "I'm offering you something solid. Solid would be good. For both of us."

Pepper stared at his hands as they worked. He recognized the calculating look, the way she could turn over a hundred thoughts at once until they added up the way she needed them to. Finally, she nodded, and smiled, a bit shyly. "Solid would be good... for both of us."

Tony grinned. "Good."

Her smile widened to match his. "Good."

"Now, first rule of solidity... you've got to stop hitting me like that when I don't deserve it, geez. Are you sure I'm not bleeding?"

She rolled her eyes. "You so deserved that, and you aren't bleeding, you big baby."

"How did I deserve that?"

"For giving me a migraine before 7:30!"

"Oh, I've done worse to you before 7:30," he called as she went to leave.

She turned back, and kissed him on the lips first, and second where she hit him on the head. "You have, but I enjoyed those things."

Tony noted the extra swing in her hips when she walked as she left the workshop. A smirk twitched on his lips. "Jarvis, remind me to pick up that argument with Ms. Potts later."

"Noted, but if I may say, sir, you have a long fight ahead of you to win that one."

"It's Pepper, Jarvis. Anything with her will be a long fight. I look forward to it."


End file.
